Introduction to E-learning

Presented by: Hicham HageSupervisor: Prof. Esma Aïmeur

Introduction to E-learning 2

Introduction to E-learning

• What is E-learning

• E-learning Standards and Specifications

• A look at E-learning today

• Obstacles to E-learning

Introduction to E-learning 3

What is E-learning

• Definition of E-learning• Types of E-learning• Advantages of E-learning• Components of an E-learning

System– LMS vs. LCMS

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Definition of E-learning

• “The convergence of the Internet and learning, or Internet-enabled learning.”

• “The use of network technologies to create, foster, deliver, and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere.”

• “A phenomenon that delivers accountability, accessibility, and opportunity allowing people and organizations to keep up with the rapid changes that define the Internet world.”

[URL1]

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Types of E-learning

• Synchronous – Time frame

restriction– Real-time

involvement– Chat– Web conference

• Asynchronous– No time frame– No real-time

involvement– Discussion forum– Email

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Benefits & Advantages

• Learner Centered– student has access to many resources and

tools

• Convenient and portable– Not bound by place or time– Study at own pace

• Flexible– Skip material already learned– Variety of tools to fit the learner’s own style

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Components of an E-learning system

• E-learning Life cycle– Skill Analysis– Material Development– Learning Activity– Evaluation

• There are different components that interact and collaborate during the e-learning life cycle.

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Simplified E-learning system

Collaborative EnvironmentLearnerLearnerDeveloper/

Teacher

Developer/ Teacher

Evaluation/ Assessment

Course Manager Learner Profile Manager

Content Authoring

Content Manager

Delivery Environment

Learner Profile Repository

Content Repository

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LMS vs. LCMS

• Learning Management System¾manages the learner¾monitors performance and progress

• Learning Content Management System¾manages the content and the learning material

Learner Profile Manager

Course Manager

Evaluation/ Assessment

Collaborative Environment

Delivery Environment

Content Manager

Content Authoring

LMSLCMS

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E-learning Standards and Specifications

• Why the need for standards

• E-learning standards organizations– IEEE / ADL / IMS

• E-learning standards– SCORM / LOM / QTI / LIP

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Why the need for standards

Standards and Specifications ensure that e-learning material is RAID:

– Reusable: modified easily and can be used on different development tools.

– Accessible: available as needed by learners or course developers.

– Interoperable: functional across different hardware or software platforms.

– Durable: easy to modify and to update for new software versions.

[URL17]

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E-learning standards organizations

• IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee– ltsc.ieee.org

¾ LOM

• ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative)– www.adlnet.org/

¾ SCORM

• IMS (Instructional Management System Project) – www.imsproject.org

¾ QTI / LIP

For a complete listing visit: workshops.eduworks.com/standards

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SCORMSharable Content Object Reference Model

• Set of standards for – Developing,– Packaging, and– Delivering training material

• SCORM has 3 components– Content Packaging– Runtime Communication– Course Metadata

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SCORM ComponentsContent Packaging

• Packaging of all necessary material and components for the course

• imsmanifest.xml– general course information– order of the course material– list of the files and resources

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SCORM ComponentsRuntime Communication

• Occurs when a certain course communicates with the LMS

• Runtime Communication contains two elements :– Runtime commands

• 8 commands to communicate with the LMS

– Learner metadata • 49 data elements to store/retrieve learner

information

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SCORM ComponentsCourse Metadata

• Information packaged within a course when it is archived

• Allows students, or course developers to search through the archives, and easily identify the content of the course

• SCORM contains a dictionary of metadata terms that can be used for the course description

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LOMLearning Object Metadata

• Standard for defining the attributes of different LO (Learning Objects )

• An index information used to search and reuse LOs

• LOM is a hierarchy of data elements. Nine categories exist at the top level of the hierarchy

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LOMData Elements Categories

• General– groups the general information that describe the LO as a whole

• Life cycle– groups the features related to the history and current state of the LO

• Meta-metadata– groups information about the metadata instance itself

• Educational– groups the educational and pedagogic characteristics of the LO

• Technical– groups the technical requirements and technical characteristics of the LO

• Rights– groups the intellectual property rights and conditions of use for the LO

• Relation– groups features that define the relationship between the LO and other related

LOs• Annotation

– provides comments on the educational use of the LO • Classification

– describes this learning object in relation to a particular classification system

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LOMData Elements Cont’d

For each data elements the LOM defines:• Name, to refer to the data element• Explanation, to define the data element • Size, that is the number of values allowed • Order, to specify the order of the values • Example, an illustrative example • Value Space, to define the set of allowed values of the data element• Datatype that indicates the type of the value of the data element

*HQHUDO

7LWOH�0\�%RRN�

/DQJXDJH�(Q� ,GHQWLILHU

(QWU\�������������

&DWDORJ�,6%1�

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QTIQuestion and Test Interoperability

• List of specifications used to exchange assessment information, such as questions, tests, and results

• Allows systems to store data in their own format, and provides a mean to import/export that data between various systems

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QTI Cont’d

• QTI is composed of two parts– ASI (Assessment Section and Item)

• Support different question types• QTI Lite, support only one type:

multiple choice single response

– Result reporting• Relates to a single learner• Contains results of several assessments• IMS LIP can be used as an alternative

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1 <questestinterop>2 <qticomment>3 This is a simple multiple choice example.4 The rendering is a standard radio button style.5 Response processing is incorporated.6 </qticomment>7 <item title="Standard Multiple Choice Item" ident="IMS_V01_I_BasicExample002b">8 <presentation label="BasicExample002a">9 <material>10 <mattext>11 Which one of the listed standards committees is responsible12 for developing the token ring specification ?13 </mattext>14 </material>15 <response_lid ident="MCb_01" rcardinality="Single" rtiming="No">16 <render_choice shuffle="Yes">17 <response_label ident="A">18 <material><mattext>IEEE 802.3</mattext></material>19 </response_label>20 <response_label ident="B">21 <material><mattext>IEEE 802.5</mattext></material>22 </response_label>23 <response_label ident="C">24 <material><mattext>IEEE 802.6</mattext></material>25 </response_label>26 <response_label ident="D">27 <material><mattext>IEEE 802.11</mattext></material>28 </response_label>29 <response_label ident="E" rshuffle="No">30 <material><mattext>None of the above.</mattext></material>31 </response_label>32 </render_choice>33 </response_lid>34 </presentation>35 </item>36 </questestinterop>

Sample QTI Item

[URL18]

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LIPLearner Information Packaging

• List of specifications used to exchange learner information

• Allows profile servers to store information in their own format, and provides means to import/export the data between different profile servers

• LIP provides an extensive set of elements to cover most of the data used by profile servers

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LIP Cont’d• Identification: contains basic information about the learner such as name and address

• Goal: contains information about the learner’s personal goal and aspirations

• QCL: specifies the Qualifications, Certifications, and Licenses

• Accessibility: contains the learner preferences such as language, disability

• Activity: contains educational and training actions

• Competency: contains skills the learner has acquired

• Interest: contains information on the learner’s hobbies and recreational activities

• Transcript: contains a summary of academic achievement

• Affiliation: contains information and description of organizations affiliated with the learner

• Security Key: contains the learners security information

• Relationship: contains descriptions of the relationships between data contained in the other segments

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E-learning today

• E-learning platform tools

• E-learning System– Virtual Tour of WebCT

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E-learning Platforms Tools

• Communication Tools– Discussion Forums, File Exchange, Internal Email, Online

Journal/Notes, Real-time Chat, Video Services, Whiteboard

• Productivity Tools– Bookmarks, Calendar/Progress, Review, Orientation/Help,

Searching, Within Course, Work Offline/Synchronize

• Student Involvement Tools– Group work, Self-assessment, Student Community Building,

Student Portfolios

• Course Delivery Tools– Automated Testing and Scoring, Course Management, Instructor

Helpdesk, Online Grading Tools, Student Tracking

• Curriculum Design Tools– Accessibility Compliance, Course Templates, Curriculum

Management, Customized Look and Feel, Instructional Design Tools

[URL10]

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E-learning System: WebCT

• Implementation started in 1995 at the University of British Columbia

• Currently available in 14 languages

• Institutions that use WebCT:– Université de Montréal– Johns Hopkins University– University of British Columbia– France Telecom– United Arab Emirates University

• Official web site: www.webct.com

• Virtual Tour:– http://workbench.webct.com:4036/webct/public/home.pl

• Login name: visit • Password: webct

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WebCT Virtual Tour

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WebCT Virtual Tour Cont’dCourse page

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WebCT Virtual Tour Cont’dWhiteboard

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WebCT Virtual Tour Cont’dDiscussion Forum

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WebCT Virtual Tour Cont’dMy Progress

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Obstacles to E-learning

• Cultural Obstacles– Reluctance to invest

in developing the E-learning content

– Cost is higher due to the lack of standardization

– Hard to motivate oneself

– People prefer to learn through social interaction

– Must learn new methods and tools

• Technical Obstacles– Bandwidth– Internet/intranet setup

and maintenance– Access to computers

and a connection– Digital Divide

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Digital Divide

• The gap in access and knowledge of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) that exists between people and societies

• There are no standardized ways for measuring the rate of growth or decline of the digital divide.

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Digital Divide Cont’d

• 429 million people online • Represents 6% of the world population

– “41% of the global online population is in the United States & Canada”

– “27% of the online population lives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (25% of European Homes are online)”

– “20% of the online population logs on from Asia Pacific (33% of all Asian Homes are online)”

– “Only 4% of the world’s online population are in South America”

[URL 2]

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Digital Divide Dimensions

• Social: conservative society refusing to access the outside world

• Economical: Computers or internet connection are expensive

• Technological: No infrastructure for an internet connection

• Linguistic: most content on the internet is in English

• Gender: Dissuasion of women from acquiring technical/computer skills

• Life stage: too old to learn how to use a PC

• Geographical situation: physically too far to reach proper technology (up on a mountain / or in a desert)

• Political: government who wants to control the people access to outside information

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In Conclusion

• Overcoming obstacles to E-learning

• Efforts to bridge the digital divide

Email: hagehich@iro.umontreal.ca

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ReferencesURL1: http://www.linezine.com/elearning.htm

URL2: http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/stories/index.cfm?key=168

URL3: http://workshops.eduworks.com/standards/

URL4: http://www.bridges.org/

URL8: http://www.unesco.org/iau/tfit_virtual_universities.html

URL9: www.brandonhall.com/public/resources/lms_lcms/lms_lcms.htm

URL10: http://www.edutools.info/index.jsp

URL13: http://www.webct.com

URL14: http://workbench.webct.com:4036/webct/public/home.pl

URL15: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/papers/lms_overview.php

URL16: http://ltsc.ieee.org/

URL17: http://www.adlnet.org/

URL18: http://www.imsproject.org/